Foreign and Military Affairs

China's 9th peacekeeping force leaves for Sudan

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-15 16:58

BEIJING - A Chinese peacekeeping police squad left Beijing late Thursday for Sudan to take part in the United Nations missions in the African country.

It is the ninth peacekeeping police force China has sent to Sudan since May 2006, when China dispatched its first group of peacekeepers in the war-torn region.

The 22-member squad, which includes staff from the criminal investigation, public security, and traffic control departments of China's northern port city of Tianjin, will replace the eighth peacekeeping police squad, which was sent to Sudan in September last year.

Members of the police squad have received a three-month training course on international law and first aid, among other things, and are equipped with the requisite knowledge and skills for peacekeeping.

Since January 2000, China has sent 1,637 police on UN peacekeeping missions to East Timor, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Liberia, Afghanistan, Haiti and Sudan, according to the Ministry of Public Security.